ARTHUR E. MANN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/01/1944 - HFSID 292965

ARTHUR E. MANN
The war correspondent congratulates Warner Bros. executive A. M. "Doc" Salomon on his film documentary on "doodle bugs." Four days later, Salomon would be killed by one of these German bombs while trying to make new sound recordings of them!
Typed Letter signed: "Arthur E. Mann", 1 page, 7x10½. London, 1944 July 1. On letterhead of the Mutual Broadcasting System to "Doc" A. M. Salomon, Studio Manager, Warner Brothers, Teddington (England). In full: "As Ernest Royls has undoubtedly told you, the broadcast of your doodle-bug film last evening went over in fine style. So this is just to say very sincerely how much I appreciate your letting us have it, and the fine co-operation of you and your office in putting it over. Sincerely yours". ARTHUR E. MANN (d. 1973) was a war correspondent for the Mutual Broadcasting Corporation of America, stationed in London. Like the better remembered Edward R. Murrow of CBS, Mann's radio broadcasts of the German aerial "Blitz" assault on London in late 1940 brought the war in Europe home to millions of American households. A well known painting by Henry Marvell Carr, showing Mann in US Army uniform, hangs in the Imperial War Museum in London. Mann was married (from 1919) to Elizabeth Craig, celebrated English author of culinary books. Multiple mailing folds. Lightly toned on verso. Otherwise, fine condition. A. M. "Doc" Salomon rose from a janitorial position to become studio manager at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, California, and a close friend of studio mogul Jack L. Warner, compiling a famed collection of autographed photos along the way. Salomon played a role in the integration of sound with film, a process Warner Bros. pioneered beginning with the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer (1927). During World War II, Salomon was placed in charge of Warner Bros.' studio in Teddington, near London. His projects there included film and recording of the new German terror weapon, the V1, which began targeting London shortly after D-Day. The V1, or "vengeance weapon,' called by Londoners the "doodle-bug" or "buzz bomb," was the ancestor of the modern cruise missile. An imprecise weapon, it was simply aimed at London, falling at an unpredictable location in the city when its motor cut off. The bomb made a buzzing noise, and its danger was imminent when it went silent. On July 5, 1944, a V1 hit the Teddington studio, where Mann was - ironically - recording its sound. The studio was destroyed, Salomon killed. His autograph collection, and letters such as this one, survived. Multiple mailing folds. Lightly toned on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.